Giving a hoot about Canadian music

Premiere: Gillian Nicola – “No Place to Call”

The weather has been unseasonably cold lately, and just in time, Hamilton’s Gillian Nicola is about to come out with a very warm new EP, No Place to Call, on April 15. Grayowl Point will bring the warmth a week early with a stream of the whole thing.

Fittingly enough, the EP opener “February” is about winter and will immediately bring you out of those cold-weather blues. Nicola’s countrified sound bases itself in pop structures with a healthy smattering of pedal steel here and there, giving each song and story plenty of room to breath. Nicola’s big voice elevates the songs, whether they’re faster numbers like “Lose You” or a build-up like “Oh Marie.”

As Nicola explains in a statement, “No Place to Call is a work focused on atmosphere: I want the listener to feel as though they are surrounded by colour, while simultaneously allowing them to really feel the emotion that is clear in the songs. The title, No Place to Call refers to a lack of being able to call anyone, or any place, home – a theme that is highly present throughout the recording.”